Video: Governor Sarah Palin’s Transformational Leadership Style

By Gary P Jackson

A great video put together by Ron Devio and wonderfully narrated by SarahNET Radio’s Kevin Scholla. An interesting look at Sarah Palin’s leadership style, and something folks may want to bookmark for future reference:

Governor Palin is a transformational leader in the grand tradition of Ronald Reagan. When she took office as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she took what was essentially a dirt road village, and turned it into the fastest growing city in the state. Mayor Palin built infrastructure, lured major businesses into town, and before long, Wasilla was the trading hub for the entire Mat-Su Valley, an area roughly the size of the state of Delaware. Oh, and she did all of this while actually lowering city taxes!

To this day the current Mayor of Wasilla credits Sarah Palin with the fact some 50,000 shoppers a week come to Wasilla. It was her policies that made the city such a powerful trading hub.

Of course, Sarah’s many accomplishments as Governor have been well documented here. It’s been said that Sarah Palin got more done in her one term as Governor than most politicians, including two term Presidents will in a career, and as a young woman, Sarah has a lot more her career left to add to those numerous [and impressive] accomplishments.

It’s no secret that we support Governor Palin, and would love nothing more to see her run for President in 2016. America needs, and deserves solid, responsible leadership. The kind of leadership Sarah Palin can bring.

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Where There Is No Vision, the People Perish

by Whitney Pitcher

“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”- Proverbs 29:18

Both in her appearance with Shannon Bream today and her Facebook post last night, Governor Palin noted this election’s focus on vision, noting in her Facebook post that President Obama has stated this election is about ” two fundamentally different visions of America”. In her Facebook post, she also delineated numerous ways in which the vision of candidate Obama has failed when he came into office. In her interview with Shannon Bream, she referenced Thomas Sowell’s discussion on the “conflict of visions” and how too often try to solve their own problems (i.e. their re-elections) rather than solve the country’s problems. Politicians are too often expediently myopic.

With Mitt Romney noting last week that he was seeking a vice presidential candidate with ” vision for country” and with his selection of Congressman Paul Ryan who is known for his budgetary”roadmap”–a vision for the country, it has become more clear that the vision for the country, not change, is the keyword of this election. However, it is imperative that our leaders are visionary enough to accompany that vision with action and courage. The verse from the book of Proverbs at the beginning of this post comes from the Israelite king Solomon to whom God granted great wisdom. Unfortunately, Solomon too frequently misapplied the great wisdom he was blessed with, and it ultimately culminated in a divided kingdom in the next generation. His vision was a self-involved one, and it ultimately led to the centuries of political turmoil for his people.

In December 2010, Governor Palin was the first prominent conservative to provide support for Congressman Ryan’s roadmap, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

In my view, a better plan is the Roadmap for America’s Future produced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.). The Roadmap offers a reliable path to long-term solvency for our entitlement programs, and it does so by encouraging personal responsibility and independence.

In that op-ed, she noted that the fiscal reforms that Paul Ryan proposed would address the unsustainable problems with Social Security, Medicare, health care, and the national debt. He offered a vision to fix America’s problems–not his own political problems. However, due to decades and decades of politicians who served only to further their own interest, pad their bank accounts, and solve their own problems, our nation has come to a tipping point. Our leadership has failed to provide a vision to prevent problems from happening in the first place, so instead, they are forced to solely solve problems–many of which could not have been prevented.

In order to deal with the massive problems our country faces, our leaders must realize that their vision must be one of both problem prevention and problem solving, but they also must realize that those who solve problems are ultimately the American people–not the government. Our problems can’t be micromanaged, nor can they be solved solely because one party does a “better” job of managing the economy. Government’s role is not to manage the economy. Solving the problems of “energy cronyism” won’t end by replacing solar and ethanol subsidies with oil and coal subsidies. Our large deficits and growing debts won’t be prevented if our leaders aim to cut taxes, but only cut spending around the margins.

Being from Alaska, a state whose motto is “north to the future” and who sees the north star as a guiding force, perhaps Governor Palin has a better sense of true vision than many other politicians–one that can be seen in her record and in her ideas. I wrote two posts at Conservatives4Palin in spring 2011 talking about Governor Palin’s “forward focused leadership” on both energy and spending. Governor Palin’s vision on energy set in motion the construction of a natural gas pipeline. Her vision on budgeting lead her to cut spending 9.5% during her tenure for the sake of Alaska’s fiscal health, and due in large part to her policies, Alaska has had their credit upgraded twice since 2007.  Additionally, last year Governor Palin laid out a vision for America when she spoke in Indianola, Iowa. Her vision focused on ridding our political system of crony capitalism, stopping the expansion of the federal government, repealing Obamacare, reining in debt, becoming an energy superpower, and removing both corporate taxes and corporate welfare.

Governor Palin is a visionary political figure–in both her words and her deeds. When she chose not to run for the presidency last fall, many of the pundits wanted to relegate her to the role of political cheerleader, but the past ten months have shown she is no cheerleader in this political game. She is a visionary coach who has encouraged a game plan for this election cycle:

Our country cannot afford four more years of Barack Obama’s fundamentally flawed vision. We must now look to this new team, the Romney/Ryan ticket, to provide an alternate vision of an America that is fiscally responsible, strong, and prosperous – an America that understands and is proud of her exceptional place in the world and will respect those who fight to secure that exceptionalism, which includes keeping our promises to our veterans.

[…]

Please continue to focus on the presidential race and on helping Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, but it’s also imperative that we get involved in the nation’s important House and Senate races. These candidates need our help to ensure that our next president has a responsible and ethical Congress that actually gets things done for America. Now on to November!

The Obama presidency has provided ample examples of a failed vision. The Romney-Ryan campaign must provide fiscally sound, reform minded vision, and they must do so with courage and conviction. When their vision is being falsely blurred by the Obama campaign and the complicit media, as Governor called for in her interview with Shannon Bream,  let us have their back (something she has never fulled received from her GOP colleagues). Finally, a vision cannot be implemented with inadequate leadership; it’s not solely about the presidential race, but Congress as well. A visionary coach would know how important it was for the success of the 49ers to have not only Joe Montana on their team, but also Jerry Rice. It doesn’t matter what your quarterback is capable of if you have a poor wide receiver.

This election isn’t about nebulous hope and change. It’s about the vision that extends beyond the next election and leadership that extends beyond speeches. Both leadership and vision must work in concert with each other. As President Reagan once said, ” to grasp and hold a vision–that is the very essence of successful leadership”.

Sarah Palin 2007: Our Leaders Need to Secure and Defend the United States

By Gary P Jackson

A few days ago our friends over at Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin sent us a video clip of an interview Sarah did with Charlie Rose back in 2007, more than six months before she was chosen by John McCain to be his running mate.

As we look at dictator wannabe Barack Obama’s latest power grab, illegally by-passing Congress to legitimize illegal aliens, and the GOP’s tepid response, I thought it was a good time to remind America what real leadership looks and sounds like.

Round-up: Sarah Palin On The Debt Ceiling Debate

By Gary P Jackson

The on-going debate in Washington over the debit, is the fight of our lifetime. Though a few of the GOP presidential candidates have weighed in, no one has been more consistent and spoken more forcefully about all of this than Sarah Palin. Sarah is a fiscal hawk. Has been since her earliest days in politics.

Though she’s been consistently talking about the economy, debt, and how to get our nation back on track, as things heat up, I thought it was a good time to do a little round-up of recent interviews and notes from Sarah, regarding the debate, as a handy reference.

She’s been the one consistent voice of reason in all of this.

Below are links to her most recent, dating back to June:

On Fox News Sunday

“Sugar Daddy Has Run Out of Sugar”

On Hannity

“Lame Duck President”

On Fox Business’ Follow the Money

With Greta:

Oh, and let’s not forget this little reminder to Congress that sent a shockwave through Washington on Thursday:

Congressional Freshmen – For Such A Time As This

Since you’re in the mood, you should also read this from Whitney Pitcher about Sarah Palin’s performance as a job creator.

Governor Palin’s Record on Jobs Beats the GOP Field

Video courtesy of our friends at SarahNet

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech To Congress

By Gary P Jackson

I know I’m a tad late, but I wanted to get a clean video of this powerful speech. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu reminds us what Leadership looks like. You see he gets wide support from Congress. He’s interrupted frequently by applause and gets around 30 standing ovations, more than Obama got at his last State of the Union address.

This is a speech you’ll want to watch more than once.

Below is a transcript released by the Prime Minister:

I am deeply honored by your warm welcome. And I am deeply honored that you have given me the opportunity to address Congress a second time. Mr. Vice President, do you remember the time we were the new kids in town? And I do see a lot of old friends here. And I do see a lot of new friends of Israel here. Democrats and Republicans alike.

Israel has no better friend than America. And America has no better friend than Israel. We stand together to defend democracy. We stand together to advance peace. We stand together to fight terrorism. Congratulations America, Congratulations, Mr. President. You got bin Laden. Good riddance.

In an unstable Middle East, Israel is the one anchor of stability. In a region of shifting alliances, Israel is America’s unwavering ally. Israel has always been pro-American. Israel will always be pro-American.

My friends, you don’t need to do nation building in Israel. We’re already built. You don’t need to export democracy to Israel. We’ve already got it. You don’t need to send American troops to defend Israel. We defend ourselves. You’ve been very generous in giving us tools to do the job of defending Israel on our own. Thank you all, and thank you President Obama, for your steadfast commitment to Israel’s security. I know economic times are tough. I deeply appreciate this.

Support for Israel’s security is a wise investment in our common future. For an epic battle is now unfolding in the Middle East, between tyranny and freedom. A great convulsion is shaking the earth from the Khyber Pass to the Straits of Gibraltar. The tremors have shattered states and toppled governments. And we can all see that the ground is still shifting. Now this historic moment holds the promise of a new dawn of freedom and opportunity. Millions of young people are determined to change their future. We all look at them. They muster courage. They risk their lives. They demand dignity. They desire liberty.

These extraordinary scenes in Tunis and Cairo, evoke those of Berlin and Prague in 1989. Yet as we share their hopes, but we also must also remember that those hopes could be snuffed out as they were in Tehran in 1979. You remember what happened then. The brief democratic spring in Iran was cut short by a ferocious and unforgiving tyranny. This same tyranny smothered Lebanon’s democratic Cedar Revolution, and inflicted on that long-suffering country, the medieval rule of Hezbollah.

So today, the Middle East stands at a fateful crossroads. Like all of you, I pray that the peoples of the region choose the path less travelled, the path of liberty. No one knows what this path consists of better than you. This path is not paved by elections alone. It is paved when governments permit protests in town squares, when limits are placed on the powers of rulers, when judges are beholden to laws and not men, and when human rights cannot be crushed by tribal loyalties or mob rule.

Israel has always embraced this path, in the Middle East has long rejected it. In a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted, Israel stands out. It is different.

As the great English writer George Eliot predicted over a century ago, that once established, the Jewish state will “shine like a bright star of freedom amid the despotisms of the East”. Well, she was right. We have a free press, independent courts, an open economy, rambunctious parliamentary debates.You think you guys are tough on one another in Congress? Come spend a day in the Knesset. Be my guest.

Courageous Arab protesters, are now struggling to secure these very same rights for their peoples, for their societies. We’re proud that over one million Arab citizens of Israel have been enjoying these rights for decades. Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights. I want you to stop for a second and think about that. Of those 300 million Arabs, less than one-half of one-percent are truly free, and they’re all citizens of Israel.

This startling fact reveals a basic truth: Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East. Israel is what is right about the Middle East.

Israel fully supports the desire of Arab peoples in our region to live freely. We long for the day when Israel will be one of many real democracies in the Middle East. Fifteen years ago, I stood at this very podium, and said that democracy must start to take root in the Arab World. Well, it’s begun to take root. This beginning holds the promise of a brilliant future of peace and prosperity. For I believe that a Middle East that is genuinely democratic will be a Middle East truly at peace.

But while we hope and work for the best, we must also recognize that powerful forces oppose this future.They oppose modernity. They oppose democracy. They oppose peace. Foremost among these forces is Iran. The tyranny in Tehran brutalizes its own people. It supports attacks against American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. It subjugates Lebanon and Gaza. It sponsors terror worldwide.

When I last stood here, I spoke of the dire consequences of Iran developing nuclear weapons. Now time is running out, and the hinge of history may soon turn. For the greatest danger facing humanity could soon be upon us: A militant Islamic regime armed with nuclear weapons.

Militant Islam threatens the world. It threatens Islam. I have no doubt that it will ultimately be defeated. It will eventually succumb to the forces of freedom and progress. But like other fanaticisms that were doomed to fail, militant Islam could exact a horrific price from all of us before its inevitable demise.

A nuclear-armed Iran would ignite a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. It would give terrorists a nuclear umbrella. It would make the nightmare of nuclear terrorism a clear and present danger throughout the world. I want you to understand what this means. They could put the bomb anywhere. They could put it on a missile. It could be on a container ship in a port, or in a suitcase on a subway.

Now the threat to my country cannot be overstated. Those who dismiss it are sticking their heads in the sand. Less than seven decades after six million Jews were murdered, Iran’s leaders deny the Holocaust of the Jewish people, while calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state.

Leaders who spew such venom, should be banned from every respectable forum on the planet. But there is something that makes the outrage even greater: The lack of outrage. In much of the international community, the calls for our destruction are met with utter silence. It is even worse because there are many who rush to condemn Israel for defending itself against Iran’s terror proxies.

But not you. Not America. You have acted differently. You’ve condemned the Iranian regime for its genocidal aims. You’ve passed tough sanctions against Iran. History will salute you, America.

President Obama has said that the United States is determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He successfully led the Security Council to adopt sanctions against Iran. You in Congress passed even tougher sanctions. These words and deeds are vitally important.

Yet the Ayatollah regime briefly suspended its nuclear program only once, in 2003, when it feared the possibility of military action. That same year, Muammar Qadaffi gave up his nuclear weapons program, and for the same reason. The more Iran believes that all options are on the table, the less the chance of confrontation. This is why I ask you to continue to send an unequivocal message: That America will never permit Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

As for Israel, if history has taught the Jewish people anything, it is that we must take calls for our destruction seriously. We are a nation that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust. When we say never again, we mean never again. Israel always reserves the right to defend itself.

My friends, while Israel will be ever vigilant in its defense, we will never give up on our quest for peace. I guess we’ll give it up when we achieve it. Israel wants peace. Israel needs peace. We’ve achieved historic peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan that have held up for decades.

I remember what it was like before we had peace. I was nearly killed in a firefight inside the Suez Canal. I mean that literally. I battled terrorists along both banks of the Jordan River. Too many Israelis have lost loved ones. I know their grief. I lost my brother.

So no one in Israel wants a return to those terrible days. The peace with Egypt and Jordan has long served as an anchor of stability and peace in the heart of the Middle East.

This peace should be bolstered by economic and political support to all those who remain committed to peace.

The peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan are vital. But they’re not enough. We must also find a way to forge a lasting peace with the Palestinians. Two years ago, I publicly committed to a solution of two states for two peoples: A Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state.

I am willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historic peace. As the leader of Israel, it is my responsibility to lead my people to peace. This is not easy for me. I recognize that in a genuine peace, we will be required to give up parts of the Jewish homeland. In Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers. We are not the British in India. We are not the Belgians in the Congo.

This is the land of our forefathers, the Land of Israel, to which Abraham brought the idea of one God, where David set out to confront Goliath, and where Isaiah saw a vision of eternal peace. No distortion of history can deny the four thousand year old bond, between the Jewish people and the Jewish land.

But there is another truth: The Palestinians share this small land with us. We seek a peace in which they will be neither Israel’s subjects nor its citizens. They should enjoy a national life of dignity as a free, viable and independent people in their own state. They should enjoy a prosperous economy, where their creativity and initiative can flourish.

We’ve already seen the beginnings of what is possible. In the last two years, the Palestinians have begun to build a better life for themselves. Prime Minister Fayad has led this effort. I wish him a speedy recovery from his recent operation. We’ve helped the Palestinian economy by removing hundreds of barriers and roadblocks to the free flow of goods and people. The results have been nothing short of remarkable. The Palestinian economy is booming. It’s growing by more than 10% a year.

Palestinian cities look very different today than they did just a few years ago. They have shopping malls, movie theaters, restaurants, banks. They even have e-businesses. This is all happening without peace. Imagine what could happen with peace. Peace would herald a new day for both peoples. It would make the dream of a broader Arab-Israeli peace a realistic possibility.

So now here is the question. You have to ask it. If the benefits of peace with the Palestinians are so clear, why has peace eluded us? Because all six Israeli Prime Ministers since the signing of Oslo accords agreed to establish a Palestinian state. Myself included. So why has peace not been achieved? Because so far, the Palestinians have been unwilling to accept a Palestinian state, if it meant accepting a Jewish state alongside it.

You see, our conflict has never been about the establishment of a Palestinian state. It has always been about the existence of the Jewish state. This is what this conflict is about. In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews said yes. The Palestinians said no. In recent years, the Palestinians twice refused generous offers by Israeli Prime Ministers, to establish a Palestinian state on virtually all the territory won by Israel in the Six Day War.

They were simply unwilling to end the conflict. And I regret to say this: They continue to educate their children to hate. They continue to name public squares after terrorists. And worst of all, they continue to perpetuate the fantasy that Israel will one day be flooded by the descendants of Palestinian refugees.

My friends, this must come to an end. President Abbas must do what I have done. I stood before my people, and I told you it wasn’t easy for me, and I said – “I will accept a Palestinian state”. It is time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say – “I will accept a Jewish state”.

Those six words will change history. They will make clear to the Palestinians that this conflict must come to an end. That they are not building a state to continue the conflict with Israel, but to end it. They will convince the people of Israel that they have a true partner for peace. With such a partner, the people of Israel will be prepared to make a far reaching compromise. I will be prepared to make a far reaching compromise.

This compromise must reflect the dramatic demographic changes that have occurred since 1967. The vast majority of the 650,000 Israelis who live beyond the 1967 lines, reside in neighborhoods and suburbs of Jerusalem and Greater Tel Aviv.

These areas are densely populated but geographically quite small. Under any realistic peace agreement, these areas, as well as other places of critical strategic and national importance, will be incorporated into the final borders of Israel.

The status of the settlements will be decided only in negotiations. But we must also be honest. So I am saying today something that should be said publicly by anyone serious about peace. In any peace agreement that ends the conflict, some settlements will end up beyond Israel’s borders. The precise delineation of those borders must be negotiated. We will be very generous on the size of a future Palestinian state. But as President Obama said, the border will be different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967. Israel will not return to the indefensible lines of 1967.

We recognize that a Palestinian state must be big enough to be viable, independent and prosperous. President Obama rightly referred to Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, just as he referred to the future Palestinian state as the homeland of the Palestinian people. Jews from around the world have a right to immigrate to the Jewish state. Palestinians from around the world should have a right to immigrate, if they so choose, to a Palestinian state. This means that the Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside the borders of Israel.

As for Jerusalem, only a democratic Israel has protected freedom of worship for all faiths in the city. Jerusalem must never again be divided. Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel. I know that this is a difficult issue for Palestinians. But I believe with creativity and goodwill a solution can be found.

This is the peace I plan to forge with a Palestinian partner committed to peace. But you know very well, that in the Middle East, the only peace that will hold is a peace you can defend.

So peace must be anchored in security. In recent years, Israel withdrew from South Lebanon and Gaza. But we didn’t get peace. Instead, we got 12,000 thousand rockets fired from those areas on our cities, on our children, by Hezbollah and Hamas. The UN peacekeepers in Lebanon failed to prevent the smuggling of this weaponry. The European observers in Gaza evaporated overnight. So if Israel simply walked out of the territories, the flow of weapons into a future Palestinian state would be unchecked. Missiles fired from it could reach virtually every home in Israel in less than a minute. I want you to think about that too. Imagine that right now we all had less than 60 seconds to find shelter from an incoming rocket. Would you live that way? Would anyone live that way? Well, we aren’t going to live that way either.

The truth is that Israel needs unique security arrangements because of its unique size. Israel is one of the smallest countries in the world. Mr. Vice President, I’ll grant you this. It’s bigger than Delaware. It’s even bigger than Rhode Island. But that’s about it. Israel on the 1967 lines would be half the width of the Washington Beltway.

Now here’s a bit of nostalgia. I first came to Washington thirty years ago as a young diplomat. It took me a while, but I finally figured it out: There is an America beyond the Beltway. But Israel on the 1967 lines would be only nine miles wide. So much for strategic depth.

So it is therefore absolutely vital for Israel’s security that a Palestinian state be fully demilitarized. And it is vital that Israel maintain a long-term military presence along the Jordan River. Solid security arrangements on the ground are necessary not only to protect the peace, they are necessary to protect Israel in case the peace unravels. For in our unstable region, no one can guarantee that our peace partners today will be there tomorrow.

And when I say tomorrow, I don’t mean some distant time in the future. I mean tomorrow. Peace can be achieved only around the negotiating table. The Palestinian attempt to impose a settlement through the United Nations will not bring peace. It should be forcefully opposed by all those who want to see this conflict end. I appreciate the President’s clear position on this issue. Peace cannot be imposed. It must be negotiated. But it can only be negotiated with partners committed to peace.

And Hamas is not a partner for peace. Hamas remains committed to Israel’s destruction and to terrorism. They have a charter. That charter not only calls for the obliteration of Israel, but says ‘kill the Jews wherever you find them’. Hamas’ leader condemned the killing of Osama bin Laden and praised him as a holy warrior. Now again I want to make this clear. Israel is prepared to sit down today and negotiate peace with the Palestinian Authority. I believe we can fashion a brilliant future of peace for our children. But Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by the Palestinian version of Al Qaeda.

So I say to President Abbas: Tear up your pact with Hamas, Sit down and negotiate! Make peace with the Jewish state! And if you do, I promise you this. Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. It will be the first to do so.

My friends, the momentous trials of the last century, and the unfolding events of this century, attest to the decisive role of the United States in advancing peace and defending freedom. Providence entrusted the United States to be the guardian of liberty. All peoples who cherish freedom owe a profound debt of gratitude to your great nation. Among the most grateful nations is my nation, the people of Israel, who have fought for their liberty and survival against impossible odds, in ancient and modern times alike.

I speak on behalf of the Jewish people and the Jewish state when I say to you, representatives of America, Thank you. Thank you for your unwavering support for Israel. Thank you for ensuring that the flame of freedom burns bright throughout the world. May God bless all of you. And may God forever bless the United States of America.

Governor Palin and Forward Focused Leadership–Part II

by Whitney Pitcher

Last weekend, I wrote a post on how Governor Palin has exhibited forward focused leadership on energy–both with oil and natural gas developments. Just as it takes forward focused leadership to make decisions to lead a state and nation down a path of energy independence and security, it also takes forward focused leadership (and courage) to make serious steps to approach budgeting with frugality and to address needed entitlement reforms and the immoral national debt. Discussions on whether or not the debt ceiling should be raised have been swirling throughout the country over the last several weeks. The debt ceiling is a level that Congress sets stating how much money they can legally borrow, somewhat like a level of credit on your credit card. The ceiling was first set in 1917 and has been raised 74 times since 1962.It is argued that debt ceiling must be raised in order to avoid defaulting on payments on our debt or that draconian tax increases or spending cuts must occur in order for this to be dealt with appropriately. However, the debt ceiling, budgets, and entitlement reform can’t be placed into fiscal silos and separately addressed. They are interrelated. Smart and frugal decision making today regarding all of these issues will help stave off major financial problems in the future.

Governor Palin has been very clear on her thoughts on raising the debt ceiling. Hells no! She has instead offered some alternatives to address the debt ceiling and concurrently the budget. She has suggested servicing the debt first using the revenue the government already takes in and concentrating spending only on the nation’s highest priorities and allowing states to make decisions on funding lower priority projects. Governor Palin has also suggested that not raising the debt ceiling will show America’s lenders and the international financial markets that the nation is serious about addressing the debt problem, a viewpoint right inline with many conservative investors and economists.

Looking beyond solely the debt ceiling, Governor Palin has made very strong statements about federal spending by challenging both Democrats and Republicans. In a letter to Congressional freshmen last November, she urged them to cap spending at 2008 levels, yet the FY2011 budget that was finally settled on was $778 billion more than the 2008 budget. Governor Palin asserted that this budget deal reached last month was not what America needed as spending was just increased nearly 30% to be cut by less than 1%.She has suggested that President Obama’s only vision for America’s future is only securing his re-election and that his most recent budget is only a “political document”, saying further:

Let’s look at the numbers. We have a $1.5 trillion deficit this year. We’re paying $200 billion a year on our interest alone. That’s half a billion dollars per day on interest. And our $1.5 trillion deficit means that we’re borrowing $4 billion per day just to keep afloat. So, we pat ourselves on the back if we cut a billion dollars here or a billion there in discretionary spending, as we borrow $4 billion a day and pay half a billion a day in interest. The deficit for the month of February alone was the highest in our history at $223 billion. That’s more than the entire deficit for the year 2007. And there’s no end in sight. We’re not heading towards the iceberg. We’ve already hit it. Now we’re taking on water. We must find a way to get back to harbor to repair our ship of state before it’s too late.

[…]

Real leadership means leading by example. It means showing an “all-in” commitment to tackling complex issues and putting in the time and effort to educate the American public. Right now the American people have not been educated about this major challenge we face. Keep in mind that perception often becomes reality, and the perception President Obama has repeatedly given off is that he can’t be bothered to deal with our debt crisis.

Governor Palin also realizes that addressing America’s debt problem not only involves the year-to-year budget battles. It means seriously taking a look at entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. Both of those programs have shown to be in an even greater mess than previously thought with monies to fully fund Medicare drying up in 2024 and funds for Social Security running short in 2036, earlier than previously estimated which also, according to and Investors’ Business Daily article re-tweeted by Governor Palin yesterday, will add $5 trillion to the debt. This supports even further that the reforms proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan and supported by Governor Palin are needed.

In an interview with Time Magazinein mid December 2010, Governor Palin said:

I’d also look for entitlement reform, as well as a system-wide audit of government spending with a goal to move us toward zero-based budgeting practices and ultimately a balanced budget. We need to start really living within our means. As any mother or father will tell you, you don’t spend what you don’t have. And if the argument against this is that the government is too big and unruly to even consider such an audit, then I say that that alone is all the proof you need that our government has grown completely out of control and desperately needs to be reined in.

Later that month, Congressman Paul Ryan released a roadmap that seriously addressed spending and entitlements which Governor Palin supported. In her op-ed supporting this plan, Governor Palin highlighted the needs for these reforms:

On Social Security, as with Medicare, the Roadmap honors our commitments to those who are already receiving benefits by guaranteeing all existing rights to people over the age of 55. Those below that age are offered a choice: They can remain in the traditional government-run system or direct a portion of their payroll taxes to personal accounts, owned by them, managed by the Social Security Administration and guaranteed by the federal government. Under the Roadmap’s proposals, they can pass these savings onto their heirs. The current Medicaid system, the majority of which is paid for by the federal government but administered by the states, would be replaced by a block-grant system that would reward economizing states.Together these reforms help to secure our entitlement programs for the 21st century. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Roadmap would lead to lower deficits and a much lower federal debt. The CBO estimates that under current spending plans, our federal debt would rise to 87% of GDP by 2020, to 223% by 2040, and to 433% by 2060. Under Rep. Ryan’s Roadmap, the CBO estimates that debt would rise much more slowly, peaking at 99% in 2040 and then dropping back to 77% by 2060.

Governor Palin realizes that leadership must be forward focused. Leadership is not raising the debt ceiling, then kicking the can further down the road for others to deal with. It’s not ignoring the problems with programs like Medicare and Social Security. Leadership is taking a strong stance on spending and debt, and it is honoring commitments to those who are already recipients of Medicare and Social Security, while reforming the programs so that America and the programs themselves can remain solvent.

In a Facebook post that I referenced earlier, Governor Palin stated that real leadership means leading by example.This is precisely what she has done. Her statements on budgeting and addressing governmental commitments while making need reforms are right in line with what she achieved and stood for as Governor. As Governor, she recognized that budgeting must be future focused. When oil revenues were high, the Alaska state coffers were filled to the brim. The temptation for many would be to spend, spend, spend, but this was not Governor Palin’s strategy. She addressed fiscal priorities and put money into savings:

Most importantly, Alaska enjoys a $12 billion surplus thanks to ACES and the sound fiscal policies of my administration. I put billions of dollars aside in savings accounts (though I could have easily spent those billions and made a lot of friends with big-spending legislators on both sides of the aisle), and I continued to veto excess spending and Obama stimulus funds, and chopped earmarks by 86% – much to the chagrin of liberal legislators who were used as “sources” in the article. It’s kind of amusing to see state legislators claim credit for the surplus when they didn’t vote for ACES, and they cried to high heaven when I vetoed their wasteful spending on their special interest projects.

Of course, I could have made a lot more friends in Juneau if I had spent the surplus. But I chose to put billions in savings for a rainy day and return a portion to the people of Alaska. (It was their money after all.) I paid down hundreds of millions of dollars into our under-funded state pension plans, then set aside another billion for forward-funding education. I fought the union’s demands for more benefits, engaged in hiring freezes, and cut frivolous state expenditures – again, much to the chagrin of those who spend other people’s money recklessly. That’s sound fiscal policy. I’m proud of it, and Alaska is stronger today because of it.

Governor Palin’s record is one of forward focused leadership. She used a budgetary surplus to address education and pensions, but she also vetoed spending projects–vetoing nearly a quarter billion dollars in 2007 alone. She also put billions in savings–saving for a time when the financial outlook was not as sunny. She not only cut earmarks by 86%, she cut overall spending by 9.5% during her time as governor. Many governmental executives are praised if they merely slow the rate of spending, but Governor Palin instituted real cuts. Our national debt stands at more than $14 trillion currently. Forward focused leadership is needed, not fiscal myopia focused solely on political expediency. Governor Palin enacted such a vision in Alaska. She cut spending and put money into savings during good financial times, and she realizes that when times are not good cutting spending and addressing entitlements is needed to help keep America from driving off a fiscal cliff. To address the fiscal problems of this nation, we don’t need a politician; we need a leader.

Governor Palin and Forward Focused Leadership–Part I

by Whitney Pitcher

President Reagan once said, ” to grasp and hold a vision–that is the very essence of successful leadership”. One of the keys to leadership is being forward focused. This involves seeing beyond the next release of one’s polling data, seeing beyond the next budget, and beyond the next election. It involves seeing the possible barriers and knowing how to address them based upon the successes of the past while also seeking for ways to address problems in the future. However, so often politicians make decisions based upon their own selfish myopic vision or a vision based upon yet to be proven ideas. True leadership involves making decisions in light of what’s best for both the present and the future. When we look in particular at energy, we can certainly see that Governor Palin has exhibited forward focused leadership.

We aren’t energy independent, and energy prices are high because politicians have not had the political will to drill in America, which would both make us more independent and help increase the worldwide oil supply so that it is not so dependent on unstable countries. A forward focused politician like Governor Palin understand this very well. To address an energy price crisis, you must prepared for the crisis. You can’t be floundering looking for companies and speculators to demonize, nor be unable to offer true solutions. One major way to combat a potential crisis is essentially to prevent it and/or mitigate its effects. It is simple supply and demand economics, as Governor Palin discussed last night. If supplies are decreased and demand is held steady or increased, prices are going to go up. Unrest in oil rich countries like Libya have decreased supplies, which has influenced President Obama to call for the Saudis to ramp up their production. Additionally, he has praised and funded drilling in Brazil in hopes of helping America to be one of Brazil’s “best customers”. Neither of those supposed solutions bring America any closer to energy independence, nor are they the result of a forward focused plan.

Of course, the better option is to have been drilling here in America which would add to the supply of oil internationally in addition to adding to the economic, monetary, and the national security strength nationally. Governor Palin, of course, has been a strong and longtime proponent of drilling in places like ANWR. In 1996, President Clinton vetoed a bill that would have allowed drilling in ANWR. Liberals often poo poo such notions as drilling because it would supposedly take ten years for oil to be produced. Of course, it has now been fifteen years since President Clinton’s veto. Oil producers in Alaska could have been developing for at least five years by now, which recent estimated would result in oil production at a minimum of around a half million barrels per day.

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary since President Obama put a moratorium on offshore drilling following the Gulf oil spill. Although he has lifted the moratorium, he has been very slow in issuing permits, and the EPA, an additional regulatory arm of the Obama administration, has been antagonistic to offshore drilling. Governor Palin also has been very critical of President Obama’s offshore drilling moratorium. In fact, in response to a question on what she would do to help ease oil prices, she mentioned that she would not have instituted the drilling moratorium:

I never would have done what President Obama did and that’s engage in that moratorium after the tragedy in the Gulf with the spill. He should have been more sensible in figuring out what the problem was, what the solution was to the gulf spill but not take it out on the rest of the country and prohibit drilling onshore and offshore is what he did. 97% of our offshore area locked up after that and there still is a quasi-moratorium because the EPA is making it virtually impossible for drillers to be out there extracting responsibly the God-given resources that we have domestically.

[…]

Now the President is engaged now in what he wants to get to the bottom of with whether it be collusion, or price fixing, or speculators, what else is driving up the cost. Well he can look at other states like Alaska. We already did a study to find out was it collusion? Was it speculators? What was driving up the last big spike in gas prices? And we found that no, more than anything it is a supply-and-demand, a very basic economic principle, supply-and-demand.

These are not the words of a woman who is merely engaging in armchair politicking. Governor Palin was forward focused during her tenure a Governor. In addition to being a strong proponent of expanding energy development to help make America more energy independent through drilling for oil, she also acted to move development of natural gas forward through the development of a pipeline that would bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48. As Governor, she moved a natural gas pipeline project further than any of her predecessors. A New York Times hit piece in March tried to attack AGIA, but all of the evidence points to AGIA as being right on target:

The New York Times also questions the progress of Governor Palin’s natural gas pipeline project–the Alaska’s Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA)–which will bring natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska through Canada to the Lower 48 as an additional means of achieving energy independence. Governor Palin’s pipeline project was done in a transparent free-market friendly manner with proposals available for public consumption— a far cry from the behind-closed-doors pipeline discussion with oil companies that were commonplace and unsuccessful in previous administrations. The New York Times argues that neither gas suppliers nor federal permits had been obtained for the project.

However, at the end of the first open season for bidding by gas suppliers this past summer, there were “several major players” who had submitted bids. Additionally, the pipeline company TransCanada and oil company ExxonMobil, both partners on AGIA-backed pipeline project, have had discussions with BP-ConocoPhilips to work together on the project. Additionally, the permitting process with both American and Canadian regulatory agencies has made “significant progress,” and the progress is right on track with time projections.

Following one of the early successes of this project nearly two years ago, Governor Palin was interviewed by Matt Lauer, where he questioned the need for the pipeline as natural gas prices were low at the time.Governor Palin called such an idea “short sighted” (see especially at the 2:15 mark and following):

Governor Palin is right about the need to make America energy independent when it comes to both oil and natural gas. She also was right to note the short sighted nature of evaluating future energy development entirely upon current prices. The most recent natural gas futures were at $4.58 per MMBtu (million British thermal units). When Governor Palin was interviewed in June of 2009, natural gas futures were at $3.56 per MMbtu. Prices have increased. Governor Palin was right to note that it would have been short sighted not to proceed when natural gas prices were low. As you can see in this chart here, natural gas prices are volatile, just as oil prices are. What is the best way to deal with both? Ensure that there are sufficient supplies produced in the United States. Increased domestic supplies soften the blow when instability in other energy producing nations affect the world energy market. Additionally, such efforts would provide jobs and protect America’s national security.

Critics may claim that someone who is forward focused on energy would be looking to green energy initiatives as President Obama has focused on green energy in his last three weekly addresses and in much of attempt to deal with the current high energy prices. Governor Palin has been rightly critical on the overemphasis of such initiatives, pointing to the failure of green energy in Spain that has crippled employment and contributed to their massive debt problem. Meanwhile, President Obama is pushing for electric cars that have proven to have major problems and are mostly re-charged on energy derived from fossil fuels like coal. Governor Palin recognizes that in the desire for energy independence, knowing what doesn’t work is just as important as knowing what does.

Part of leadership involves solving problems, but another part of leadership involves having the foresight to both prevent problems from happening in the first place and mitigate the effects when there are problems. This is why Governor Palin warned that not seeking energy independence would result in the federal government being tempted to tap into our strategic petroleum reserves. That is why Governor Palin has been a very vocal proponent for expanding offshore drilling and drilling on land in the United States. That is why she championed the natural gas pipeline to bring Alaska’s abundant natural gas to the Lower 48. That is why she has the justified skepticism with the social engineering disguised as “green energy” focus of the Obama administration. Governor Palin has shown that she has the leadership skills to be both a problem solver and a problem preventer.

Investor’s Business Daily: Hey GOP Leadership, When Sarah Palin Speaks, You Need To Listen

The lesson: When Mama Grizzly roars, maybe the Beltway know-it-alls should listen.

By Gary P Jackson

The editors over at Investor’s Business Daily have penned an editorial praising the wisdom of Sarah Palin, and how she made the right choices of candidates to back during the primaries and general election:

Palin’s Vindication

Congress: The GOP establishment — and some conservative pundits — ridiculed Sarah Palin for backing rough-edged Tea Party challengers over establishment figures. Recent congressional votes prove her right.

Read the editorial here.

Even though those mentioned, Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Miller lost [thanks to the GOP elites, in our opinion] and who knows how the Miller/Murkowski contest will shake out, Sarah made bold choices to back principled Common Sense Conservatives.

Of course, Sarah backed 94 candidates for local, state, and national office, 63 of which won. That’s a record anyone would envy.

As for the Republican leadership, especially the Senate leadership, well, let’s just say their record of success was nil. The Republican group responsible for recruiting and backing candidates picked the wrong horse in almost every primary. Thankfully most were defeated before they had a chance to join pathetic RINOs like Mike Castle and Lisa Murkowski.

The GOP would do well to seek Sarah Palin’s council in the future, on pretty much every issue. Their batting record would improve greatly.

Sing It With Me: Sarah Palin Is Right Once Again!

As Obama tries to use the Democrat majority one more time, Palin proves she is a leader with political and governing sense!

~ Mark Vogl

By Gary P Jackson

“Sarah Palin was right!” I think this is a phrase we are going to be hearing for many years to come. This will be of great delight to Sarah’s millions of supporters and cause massive heartburn among democrats and the Republican establishment, the Ruling Class of America.

As soon as the “compromise” tax deal between President Obama and the GOP leadership was announced Sarah Palin, along with Senator Jim DeMint came out strongly against it. The American people got hosed, and Sarah knew it! There were all sorts of little add-ons to appease the left. Unfunded add-ons that make an all ready unsustainable budget deficit grow by billions of dollars.

If that wasn’t bad enough, days later the radical left, who are never satisfied, ever, decided they didn’t like this thing either and all hell broke loose. The legislative process took on the feel of an Arabian street bazaar, with politicians from both parties selling of their “yes” votes for billions of dollars to fund their little pet projects. Billions of dollars we don’t have, putting us even further in debt. A debt we will likely never be able to repay if this nonsense isn’t stopped.

Thanks to the geniuses in Washington, they turned a really bad idea into a double-decker crap sandwich. One of many crap sandwiches we have had shoved down our throat by the democrat controlled 111th Congress, which mercifully, is set to expire at the end of the year.

As I write this, pretty much everyone is against this thing, the President is telling his people if this bill doesn’t pass his presidency is over [yeah like passing it will help] and Conservatives as well are radical progressives are in revolt. The crap sandwich passed the Senate “The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” [snort] and is hung up in the House.

Here’s the deal. The tax cuts that were put in place by George W. Bush and the Republican Congress have an expiration date: December 31, 2010. When they expire, Americans will see the largest tax increase in history. It will devastate an economy that is already on life support.

Obama knows if these tax increases happen he’ll have to be put in the Witness Protection Program! It’s hard to feel sorry for the President and his Congress though. They have known this was coming for years. While they were working so hard to destroy the finest health care in the world [ObamaCare] and scheme to give union thugs total control of the private labor force [card check] work on cap and tax, amnesty for illegals, and so on, they ignored the looming tax explosion that’s about to happen.

I guess the democrats thought they could run out the clock on the lame duck session, just before they lose control, and hope they could force the Republicans into eating a crap sandwich, along with the American people, out of fear.

Here’s the deal. In January the 112th Congress will be sworn in. The House will be overwhelmingly Republican, with strong Conservative leadership, and the Senate will have some new Conservative firebrands as well. Even better, for the country, a whole lot of democrat Senators will be up for re-election in 2012, and they will likely be very open to supporting Conservative ideas, instead of those pushed by the radical left.

As both Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint recommended early on, let this crap sandwich die and in January come back and put the tax cuts back in place, negotiating from a position of strength. They can make the tax cuts retroactive to the first of the year.

Jim Vogl at his America Today blog has this to say:

Governor Palin was ahead of the pack when she rejected the bill which passed the Senate yesterday.

Republicans in the Senate once again collapsed. They could have stopped this bill, but they didn’t.

Do we need an extension of the Bush tax rates? Yes, but permanently! Why? For two reasons. First, because a permanent extension of the Bush tax rates would help create a long term business friendly environment thus “stimulating” the economy. Second, because permanently lower tax rates would completely change the direction of government growth. Lower tax rates means a limit to spending to force cuts in government spending.

What else is wrong with the present bill? How bout billions in earmarks spending. This is spending which is important to one member of Congress, and is added to larger legislation to get their vote. Earmarks is a tool to get your representative to vote for legislation they would not otherwise support!
The last campaign was, in part, about the abuse of earmarks and the credit card mentality of the Obama Administration and the Democrats.

[ …. ]

Sarah Palin had been almost alone when she opposed this bill. Now, most Americans reject this bill. A sign of a leader is knowing the mind of the nation, before even the nation knows…Sarah seems to be a leader with that skill.

It’s pretty easy to know what’s on the mind of the American people when you are one of them. Unlike most politicians, Sarah Palin is one of us, and not part of the Ruling Class.

There is another piece of legislation that is just as dangerous and just as big of a crap sandwich as the extension of Bush tax cuts legislation, and that’s the omnibus spending bill. The democrat controlled Congress has ignored it’s one constitutionally mandated duty: to create an operating budget. Instead of doing their job, they have passed “continuing resolutions” that keep governments doors open, with little or no oversight and control over spending. [And we wonder why we have a $14 TRILLION budget deficit!]

Anyhow, at the last minute, the democrats have gotten religion and decided we absolutely MUST have an actually budget. The dollar figure is 1.1 TRILLION. This damned bill is 1900 pages long and filled with all sorts of porkulicious waste. This is a crap sandwich on steroids!

Thankfully Jim DeMint is all over this one and is using a parliamentary procedure that will force this bill to be read into the Senate record, aloud and on the Senate floor. Obviously this will take days. The idea is to run the clock out so the new Republican Congress can create a budget that makes sense.

There really should be a law that says once an election is held, there will be no more Congress [lame duck] until a new one is sworn in. The amount of mischief the democrats are up to is amazing. They are still going to try and pass amnesty for illegal aliens [the “Dream Act”] and repeal DADT so that gays can serve openly in the military. Things the American people just threw the democrats out of power over. It’s immoral, and should be illegal for these losers to get the opportunity to shove these unpopular and dangerous initiatives down Americas throat, especially after America just gave them one of the loudest “ Hell Nos!” in election history.

BTW, if you are keeping score of how the major players for 2012 stand on the tax “compromise” crap sandwich, Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint are dead set against it. Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee loves them some tasty crap.

After a couple of weeks of focus grouping the hell out of it, Mitt Romney came out, saw his shadow, stuck his finger in the air, and decided he was against the bill. The rest are either unsure [clueless] or in hiding.

The key word going into 2012 will be LEADERSHIP.

Some have it, most don’t.

UPDATE:

As I was about to publish this piece, news came that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, realizing the effort was futile, pulled the $1.1 TRILLION omnibus spending bill off the table. It’s dead.

A lot of solid Conservatives worked hard to stop it. Of course, Jim DeMint played a big part, but so did Senator John McCain who took to the Senate floor reading every ridiculous waste of money that was crammed into that mess. McCain has long been one of the loudest voices against earmarks and wasteful spending in general.

This was a good day

Sarah Palin: The Way Forward

By Gary P Jackson

After unprecedented success on election night, Sarah Palin, in an op-ed for National Review Online, offers up some lessons and a pathway to future victory:

The Midterms: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward

Have an intelligent message, and fight for your right to be heard.

Now that the dust has settled on the 2010 midterm elections, it’s slowly becoming clear just how monumental the results really are. We saw an extreme left-wing agenda suffer a crushing defeat. At the ballot box, voters took Obamacare and the stimulus and wrapped them right around the necks of those same House members and senators who had arrogantly dismissed the concerns voiced in countless town halls and Tea Party rallies up and down the country. Voters sent commonsense conservatives a clear mandate to hold the line against the Obama agenda.

Does that mean Republican candidates can look forward with greater confidence to the 2012 elections? Yes and no. Yes, objectively speaking the next electoral cycle should be even more favorable than the one that just ended. A large number of red-state Democratic senators will have to defend their seats; and since Obama will be at the top of the ballot that year, they won’t be able to hide from the fact that their party leader is a detached liberal with a destructive tax-and-spend agenda. Whether Republicans will do as well as they did in this cycle depends on whether they learn the lessons from the 2010 election.

The first lesson is simple: Set the narrative. This year it wasn’t too difficult to tell the story of the election: It was about stopping an out-of-control Congress and an out-of-touch White House. In races across the country, Republican candidates ran on the message that the Left was bankrupting America with budget-busting spending bills that mortgage our children’s future, burden the private sector with uncertainty, and cripple our much-needed job growth.

The story of the next cycle, though, remains to be written. Its content depends on what Republicans do next. Just as in the 1980s, there are today millions of conservative-leaning Democrats and independents who are ready to join our cause. They gave us their votes, now we must earn their trust. And we do that by showing them that a vote for us will not be a vote for the big-spending, over-regulating status quo. The 2012 story should be about conservatives in Congress cutting government down to size and rolling back the spending, and the Left doing everything in its power to prevent these necessary reforms from happening.

In the next two years, if all we end up doing is adopting some tax hikes here, some Obama-agenda compromises there, and a thousand little measures that do nothing to get us out of the economic mess we’re in, the same voters that put the GOP in office will vote them out in the next election. If that happens, the story of 2012 may well be that of the GOP going the way of the Whigs. No, the American people are expecting us to be bold and big in our economic reform to allow the private sector to create jobs and soar!

In the coming weeks, there will be those who lament that some of us endorsed conservative Republicans over liberal ones in blue-state races. It’s a good debate, and one I’m willing to have. First, we must keep in mind that there is no guarantee that any Republican will win in a deep-blue state (as evidenced by the exit polls in Delaware showing that the liberal Republican would have lost too). But even more to the point, we saw in the last decade what happens when conservatives hold their noses and elect liberals who have an “R” after their names. Our party’s message of freedom and fiscal responsibility became diluted.

In 2008, it was difficult to claim on the one hand that we were the party of fiscal responsibility and on the other hand that our fiscal policies work. It was clear to the electorate that the GOP had not adhered to fiscally conservative positions, and that the liberal positions they did adhere to didn’t work. If we go on in that direction again, we won’t have a base, let alone a majority. Certainly we can and should back sensible center-right candidates in bluer states, but I see no point in backing someone who supports cap-and-tax, Obamacare, bailouts, taxes, and more useless stimulus packages. If you think such a candidate will be with us when it comes time to vote down an Obama Supreme Court nominee, you’re living on a unicorn ranch in fantasy land.

In the coming weeks there will also be a debate about the viability of particular candidates. Anyone with the courage to throw his or her hat in the ring and stand up and be counted always has my respect. Some of them were stronger candidates than others, but they all had the courage to be “in the arena.” The second lesson of this election is one a number of the candidates had to learn to their cost: Fight back the lies immediately and consistently.

Some candidates assumed that, once they received their party’s nomination, the conservative message would automatically carry the day. Unfortunately, political contests aren’t always about truth and justice. Powerful vested interests will combine to keep bad candidates in place and good candidates out of office. Once they let themselves be defined as “unfit” (decorated war hero Joe Miller) or “heartless” (pro-life, international women’s rights champion Carly Fiorina), good candidates often find it virtually impossible to get their message across. The moral of their stories: You must be prepared to fight for your right to be heard.

Another important lesson is that we will need the mother of all GOTV efforts if we wish to win in 2012. Sending donations isn’t enough when push comes to shove. Millions of boots on the ground are needed, and voter-fraud prevention must be addressed before election eve.

The last, and possibly most important, lesson is that a winning conservative message must always be carefully crafted. If candidates are going to talk boldly on the campaign trail about entitlement reform and reducing the size of government, they must be prepared to word it in such a way as to minimize the inevitable fear-mongering accusations of “extremism.” We are quickly approaching a fiscal turning point where these crucial reform discussions will be mandatory. We need to speak about them in a way that the public will embrace. During his first run for the presidency in 1976, Ronald Reagan found out that election campaigns aren’t necessarily the best settings for quasi-academic discussions about issues like Social Security reform. So for his next campaign, he resolved to build his platform out of tried and tested policies like tax cuts. Successful candidates in the next election cycle will have to test and develop similar policy platforms that address the crucial issues of entitlement reform and shrinking government in a way that the voters will find pragmatic and even attractive.

If we manage to do these things, there is no reason why we can’t look forward with confidence to winning in 2012. I have said all along that this election must be seen in conjunction with the next. Ultimately 2010 must be viewed as just the first battle in a much longer fight that leads to November 6, 2012, and beyond. We cannot fully restore and revive America until we replace Obama. The meaning of the 2010 election was rebuke, reject, and repeal. We rebuked Washington’s power grab, rejected this unwanted “fundamental transformation of America,” and began the process to repeal the dangerous policies inflicted on us. But this theme will only complement the theme of 2012, which is renew, revive, and restore. In 2012, we need to renew our optimistic, pioneering spirit, revive our free-market system, and restore constitutional limits and our standing in the world as the abiding beacon of freedom.

Till then, I hope that commonsense patriots will join me in applauding the real heroes of this election year: the Tea Party Americans. In 2008, we were told that we had to “move beyond Reagan.” Well, some of us refused to believe that America chose big-government European-style socialism. American voters elected a politician who cloaked his agenda in the language of moderation. Once the mask was removed, Americans rejected his “fundamental transformation.” The Tea Party reminded us that Reaganism is still our foundation. I think the Gipper is smiling down on us today waving the Gadsden Flag.

Sarah is spot on all of the way around. If the establishment Republicans are allowed to run the show, the GOP will be finished. A brand new party will emerge.

As for candidates, we must start looking at candidates for 2012 now. In 2012 all 435 House seats will once again be up for grabs, as will twice as many democrat Senate seats. The American people will have an extraordinary opportunity to further right the wrongs done to the nation, and vote out even more democrats, replacing the with common sense candidates.

We’ll also have the chance to win seats in the House as well. We must take the attitude that all 435 seats are up for grabs, and go from there.

It will be the responsibility of the grass roots activists to start the process of meeting potential candidates and evaluating them. The vetting process should start as soon as possible, so these people can hit the ground running in 2012, armed with solid support, a winning message, and the ability to get that message out there, and counteract what will most assuredly be a concerted effort by democrats and the corrupt media to stop them by any means necessary.

2010 was just the first battle in what is going to be a long war to secure our Republic and restore it. There are powerful forces at work who are not going quietly into the night. Unfortunately, these forces exist in both parties.

We can’t do anything with what will be an even more radial, more irrational democrat party, but we can hold the Republican Party’s feet to the fire on a daily basis. We can let them know in no uncertain terms we hired them to do a job, and if they fail, they are gone.

With that said, we also have to have patience. We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and aren’t going to fix it overnight either. Job one for our newly elected Congress will be to stop the Obama regime in it’s tracks, and take action that will get our economy going again. Once that’s accomplished, there will be plenty to keep them busy.

No matter how well they perform though, there will still be intense battles. It’s going to take at least one, if not two more election cycles to clear out some folks, in both parties, who will stand in the way of the restoration of our nation. We’ll have a shot at these troublemakers in 2012 as well as 2014.

The bottom line is: We won a huge victory on Tuesday night. A historic victory. A true once in a life time realignment all across the nation, but our work, and the work of those we elected, is just beginning. We must forever be watch dogs, ever vigil should those would entrusted with power stray from the path we’ve drawn for them.

A little bonus below. Sarah Palin on the Sean Hannity show: